> I'm finally going start to my second Guillemot(check is in the mail,Nick)
> I've gotten into a lot of areas with rocky shore lines. I'd like to have
> the confidence to make the landing. So on the second boat I was thinking
> of beefing up the hull...poss Kevlar. Although I'd like to keep the
> woodwork on the deck work pretty, I don't mind the sheerline down being
> gold.

> Any suggestion for combining glass and Kevlar? Or am I way off base with
> this approch?

> As usual thanks a lot!!

> Brian back again, I saw Nicks boat at a boat show and it looks great. ditto kevlar on the inside. The folks that make Tsunami kayaks (sit on top rock bashers) make them with lots of kevlar and they are heavy. And waves break them too. I wonder if wood laminates are not appropriate for high impacts. If you aren't going to want a bright hull there are a lot of worthwhile laminates for addressing abrasion,impact,tear,and ease of repair. Since wood boats are pretty rigid I wonder if overbuilding for impact strength can lead to impressive failures elsewhere. For abrasion Dynel cloth soaks up resin like crazy, but narrow strips at the bow and stern are an idea. When I laid strips down I plastic wrapped it on tightly to squeeze out excess epoxy. With very well cured epoxy is is possible sand it a little without fuzzing (unlike kevlar). With regards to impact and controlling pieces of broken boat try polyester cloth under glass. I made a test panel with 4 oz s-glass on the outside,4 oz polyester cloth inside, 4oz s-glass on top of that. The inside layer probably soaked up as much resin as 10 e glass,but it was a very,very tough panel as far as limiting propagation of cracks and staying in one piece. A little like kevlar. I also totally overbuilt a boat by using polyester cloth over 4 oz glass on the hull. Late night laminating madness. It made little sense in retrospect. I wonder if using fabrics that are so strong,or laminations so heavy that the wood is kind of a weak link. Building for human stresses might be more realistic than building for that seal landing on a boulder. For me that means the greatest stress to build for might be whether the back deck can handle a 200 lb person, or if the boat is on a concrete ramp and I can sit in it without accidently puncturing the outer skin on a pebble. So here's my fantasy laminate, kevlar the inside(wood pre-sealed), 4 oz s-glass over kevlar in the cockpit to the shear. 4 or 6oz outside with another layer of s-glass below the water line. In the big picture, I can't help but think that spending the time making the deck/hull seam neat and strong would do more than having kevlar in the sides of the boat at the ends. Whatever you do, making and breaking things is a lot funner than guessing.